Just going to put this here so I sound smart later and nobody will know if I’m wrong:

I think that John Hurt’s Doctor is NOT the Time War incarnation. I think that John Hurt’s Doctor is pre-Doctor, and by that I mean pre-William Hartnell. I think John Hurt is the young rebel who grew up with the Master. I think in the course of palling around with the Doctor, he did something horrible. (Romana points out to the 4th Doctor that he had rebelled against the Time Lords at some point in his past.) I also think that horrible thing involved human beings, which is why the Doctor hangs out and protects us so much.

I think the doing of that horrible thing with the Master is the creation moment of the Doctor – “the name for healer and wise man” – as a means of PENANCE for his wrongs. That the Doctor has been “running his whole life” from the evil of his past.

That’s what I think, anyway. I could be wrong, but I think that’s more INTERESTING than the Time War Doctor, because as far as I can tell, the Doctor accepted full responsibility for the events that ended the Time War, whereas John Hurt is someone who was hidden and while he may have acted, it was “not in the name of the Doctor.”

“Good men don’t need rules. Now is not the time to find out why I have so many.” – the Doctor should know, right?

Alex Knapp

Ugh, that should read “palling around with the Master.”

ezbez

Good comment, but just putting it out there, John Hurt is obviously a time war doctor (doctor 8.5) because Paul McGann was seen filming in a minisode, so therefore he is filming his regeneration into John Hurt.

I’m also figuring that this is not going to be a Time War Doctor. Maybe a Doctor between Troughton and Pertwee (my brother Ken suggested this). Or maybe somehow not the Doctor at all. I don’t know how that would work, but it’s Moffat.

i think it’s someone who became some sort of apprentice or hanger-on of an early version of the Doctor, and has done something terrible in his name. john hurt is *not* the Doctor… unless moffatt pulls one of his rabbits out of a silk scarf deals…

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